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Google Chromebooks Getting Steam Store for More Games

The internet giant said it's bringing the popular Steam video game store to low-cost laptops powered by its Chrome OS software.

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Ian Sherr Former Editor at Large / News
Ian Sherr (he/him/his) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, so he's always had a connection to the tech world. At CNET, he wrote about Apple, Microsoft, VR, video games and internet troubles. Aside from writing, he tinkers with tech at home, is a longtime fencer -- the kind with swords -- and began woodworking during the pandemic.
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Ian Sherr
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Chromebooks are known for their reliability. But not games. Yet.

 Asus

The game maker Valve has had a pretty strong start to the year. Its first Steam Deck handheld gaming PC, starting at $399, was met with positive reviews around its launch last month. Now its popular Steam online gaming store is arriving for new devices too -- namely, Chromebook laptops powered by Google's Chrome OS. 

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Valve

Google announced that a prerelease version of Steam would be arriving on some Chromebooks, "to try," during a presentation ahead of the Game Developers Conference later this month. Google said it plans to offer more details in a forthcoming blog post. In the meantime, 9to5Google earlier reported that the software will likely only work on more expensive, high-performance Chromebooks.

Still, the move marks a widening effort from Google to get more serious about gaming, even on low-cost laptops. Google also said it's expanding support for its Stadia streaming service, adding easier ways to play game demos, among other things.

Correction, 1:45 p.m. PT: This story initially gave an incorrect price for the Steam Deck. It starts at $399.